[ExI] what do the old timers do better than we do now?

[Anders Sandberg]

spike wrote:
>
> So what, if anything, could our predecessors do better than we do now?

Animal behaviour (and control) is clearly a big thing. How many percent of
current westerners encounter a mammal other than a cat or a dog? Compare
that to the basic transport needs just a century ago.

People learn about relevant parts of the environment, so I would expect
our ancestors to have known a lot more *practical* information about their
natural surroundings than we do. Not to mention practical skills with
their everyday tools. While most were normal ability at this, this average
would already be above our average. The best would likely beat our best,
even taking into account our larger population.

[ A population of N people will have someone ~sqrt(log(N)) standard
deviations above average. So even a pretty small increase in population
average will tend to outweigh a rather larger, but worse population. ]

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University